I cannot decide whether to feel pity for Jeronimy Clifford, the subject of Jacob Selwood’s new book, or revulsion. On the one hand, he was cheated out of his property and almost executed by the Dutch authorities in Suriname, spent years in a London debtors’ prison, and died penniless, delusionally dreaming of the return of his lost riches. On the other hand, he was an arrogant, slaveholding troublemaker full of self-importance who physically and psychologically abused his wife. Either way, his makes for a fascinating and well-told story.
Clifford, an English subject, was born in (or at least baptized in) the village of Egham, Surrey, in 1657. Had his family remained there, we would have probably never heard of him. As it is, his life story provides Selwood with the structure to discuss the shaping of subjecthood on the periphery of empire. The Clifford family’s emigration to English Suriname around 1663 gives Selwood the opportunity to explore colonial definitions of subjecthood that were much more expansive than in the metropole. High mortality, for example, prompted the colonial authorities in Suriname to recognize Sephardic Jews as English subjects, though that status was disputed elsewhere as well as in Suriname after the Dutch takeover in 1667.
That takeover by the Dutch affected Clifford’s subjecthood status as well. The terms of the 1667 Articles of Capitulation surrendering the colony to the Dutch were quite generous, allowing English landowners to retain their land and remain in Dutch Suriname or sell and depart with their property. The Cliffords initially stayed, but along with much of the remaining English population, they left for Jamaica in 1675. However, difficulties with the sale of the family plantation led to Jeronimy Clifford’s return. (Notably, the English subjecthood of the colonies Sephardic population was denied by Dutch colonial authorities and that group was not allowed to leave.) Back in Dutch Suriname, Clifford’s English subjecthood became shaped by “an array of extralegal factors” (2), including the disease environment, warfare, and the evolving colonial hierarchy.
Yet, Clifford found financial success as the colony developed under Dutch rule, especially after his marriage to the oft widowed, Dorothy Matson, which brought the thriving plantation of Corcabo into his Suriname holdings. That marriage, though, was not a happy one, with the ensuing marital dispute over property (Corcabo) providing Selwood with the framework to explore issues of subjecthood. Whether Matson was Dutch or English, whether they had married in England, and whether Clifford’s rights under the 1667 Articles of Capitulation were still valid were all questions for the Dutch colonial authorities. Under English law, Clifford could claim full ownership of Corcabo, but the Dutch practice was for joint ownership. After Matson left the colony in 1687, Clifford remained in charge of the plantation, but the colonial authorities contested his control. As the dispute between Clifford and Matson slowly played out in court, Clifford was prevented from liquidating the property and leaving the colony.
The Glorious Revolution further complicated Clifford’s subjecthood, with William III being simultaneously the English King and Dutch stadholder. Clifford’s disputes continued with his estranged wife, with a Scottish planter over a slave, and with the Dutch governors, leading to his imprisonment and the confiscation of his properties. He left Suriname in 1695 with the fate of his property unresolved. The petitions, correspondence, accounts, records, and pamphlets written by Clifford in his subsequent attempts to regain or be compensated for his property make up the bulk of the Selwood’s sources. Ultimately, his repeated appeals based on his English status were unsuccessful, yet his life serves as an example of the messiness of colonial life and subjecthood at the edge of empire.
